


Annabell Lee But Every Line Is A Chapter And It's Sapphic

by 50s_housewife_with_a_dark_secret



Category: Annabell Lee (Edgar Allan Poe)
Genre: F/F, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:42:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24633271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/50s_housewife_with_a_dark_secret/pseuds/50s_housewife_with_a_dark_secret
Summary: Two girls fall in love, making even heaven jealous
Relationships: Annabell Lee/Original Character
Kudos: 1





	1. It Was Many And Many A Year Ago

It was a long time ago. You might think it doesn't matter anymore, it was so long ago, but it does. It really does. Still, it was so long ago that it is hard to say when exactly this happened. The world was young, and maybe it wasn't even this world but one that came before it, an earlier universe, that collapsed in on itself to create this one. Some people believe in that. You can if you like. I don't know anymore. All I know is my connection to her. From what I remember, there were a lot of codes of conduct, and we all knew them without having to be told, just by watching one another. I knew that travelling across the sea was for scoundrels, even though the sea was right there, calling out. I knew not to go outside when there was a storm. As a milkmaid, I had very little sway in the world, despite my protection from smallpox. I knew that nobody was sure why Milkmaids didn't get smallpox, but I was grateful for it. I was safe. I had no say over who was in charge, or who was assassinated that year. My father worked the fields. We were unimportant people, me especially, and the big important people payed us little mind. And there were sheep. There were always sheep everywhere, waiting to be sheered and baa'ing and grazing. 


	2. In A Kingdom By The Sea

I used to slip out and stand on the shore, when the moon was high. I would watch the black waves rolling into the sand and smoothing over the rocks. I would move as quietly as I could, knowing that I wasn't allowed to be up at night, and knowing that there was good reason for this. If I did not sleep, I would be tired in the morning, and then I would struggle to work. This all made perfect sense. Every day I told myself, that I really would go straight to bed this time. But when night came, I was opening the door, slowly, slowly, and it was creaking and groaning, trying to tattle on me. I was never a good person. It frightened me, sometimes, how little that bothered me. I followed the moonlight down to the waves. I walked through empty streets tinted in the dark blue shade of night. Everything seemed more still, at night. Ours was a small kingdom, not one of today's great empires. Truthfully, I doubt it still exists. At the time, though, in that still night, it felt looming and eternal, and yet completely familiar and friendly. Down the sloping hills, down to the sea. 

The ships docked there rose and fell as if they were breathing. The little fishing boats had usually all been brought in by then, and were waiting up the shore for morning to come. The ships remaining docked were the big, impressive ones. The ones that came to trade. 

* * *

Distantly, I can remember rivers, that ran down the hills, singing. There was a bridge over at least one of them, I think. When I was a very little girl, I used to run alongside the river, and sing along. Some of the other girls from the village would run with me and sing. Women, even young women, didn't run or sing, but it was alright for little girls. I could feel my time slipping away as I got older. Fewer and fewer of the girls who ran and sang were my own age. It was like dying. One by one we faded away and stopped and the young replaced us. Eventually, I was given enough work that there simply wasn't time or might left in me to run or sing. I was strangely relieved, once it had happened. I had thought that it would be like a flame being pinched out, leaving only smoke, but it wasn't that. I was still myself. 


End file.
